What’s your favorite song, and why? There can be many reasons, none inherently right or wrong; perhaps we simply enjoy the way it sounds. Maybe relevant lyrics and catchy melodies stay in your mind through the day. As a guitarist, many of my favorite songs feature improvisation that tells a story with great vocabulary, technique, or harmony. The standards for …

(Originally published with the Art of Worship, 2016) If you’ve been around guitarists at all, you may have noticed our love for the blues; the blues scale and 12 bar form are nearly inseparable from our instrument, and the genre is foundational to most modern music. Personally, I discovered the blues shortly after I started playing guitar; another worship team …

I’ve been teaching guitar for around six years now. For the majority of those years I’ve been also studying and learning; I value the spread of knowledge, whether in a formal or casual setting, and whether I am the student or teacher. I’ve also gotten to try out a variety of instruments – guitar, bass, drums, alto sax, trombone, clarinet, …

My friend Phil and I are both past our college days, yet still continue our education: himself with Spanish, and myself with music. As a result, we can sympathize on the difficulties of internalizing language, be it Spanish grammar or musical vocabulary. A few weeks back, he cracked a joke about falling asleep on an open textbook, and soaking up …